I have a table with 10 rows. I want to get first and any 3 random rows. Is it possible to do in one query?
Thanks,
aby
I'd do:
SELECT * FROM Foo ORDER BY ID LIMIT 1 --First row
UNION
SELECT * FROM Foo WHERE ID NOT IN (SELECT ID FROM Foo ORDER BY ID LIMIT 1)
ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 3
(SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY id ASC LIMIT 1) UNION (SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 3)
Of course, you may want to not select the first row in the random part, but you said ANY 3
I would recommend doing this at the app layer, as you can introduce caching later. Plus it's much faster to do random operations within the application than is at the database layer.
// Your database stuff
while ($row = $result->fetchRow()) {
$results[] = $row;
}
$firstResult = array_shift($results);
for ($i = 0 ; $i < 3 ; $i++) {
$randomKey = array_rand($results);
$randomResults[] = $results[$randomKey];
}
echo $firstResult;
foreach ($randomResults as $randomResult) {
echo $randomResult;
}
Related
I would like get number of records in a table then divide them by 4, after dividing them by 4 i want to create sql statements with limit ranges based on my result. For example I have a table with 8 records I divide by 4, I will create 2 sql statements with a limit range like limit 0,4 and limit 4,8
Final results will look like
Select * from prop where id=123 LIMIT 0,4
Select * from prop where id=123 LIMIT 4,8
My approach was to have for loop which will count the number of sql statements to be made.
Then in the loop: first circle 0-4 and second will be 4-8
Am struggling on the limit 0-4 and limit 4-8
PHP script
include('connect.php');
$query_1 = "Select COUNT(*) as Total from prop where ref = 'SB2004'";
$results_query_1 = mysql_query($query_1);
while($row_query_1 = mysql_fetch_array($results_query_1))
{
$cnt = $row_query_1['Total'];
}
echo $cnt;
echo "<br>";
$num_grps = 0;
if ($cnt % 4 == 0 )
{
echo $num_grps = $cnt / 4 ;
}
$count_chk= $num_grps * 4;
for ($i=1;$i<=$num_grps;$i++)
{
//for loop for range
for()
{
$range = '0,4';
echo "SELECT prop_ref from prop limit".$range;
}
}
Either you've not understood the problem or haven't explained it very well.
The most immediate problem here is that you have misunderstood the syntax for the LIMIT clause. The first argument specifies the offset to start at and the second defines the number of rows to return, hence LIMIT 4,8 will return 8 rows (assuming there are 12 or more rows in the dataset).
The next issue is that you've not said if the results need to be reproducible - e.g. if you have rows with primary keys 1 and 2, should these always be returned in the same query. In the absence of an explicit ORDER BY clause, the rows will be returned based on the order in which they are found by the query.
The next issue is that you've not explained how you want to deal with the last case when the total number of rows is not an even multiple of 4.
The code you've provided counts the number of rows where ref = 'SB2004' but then creates queries which are not filtered - why?
The code you've provided does not change the limit in the queries - why?
The next issue is that there is never a good reason for running SELECT queries inside a loop like this. You didn't exlpain what you intend doing with the select queries. But based on the subsequent update....
include('connect.php');
$query_1 = "Select COUNT(*) as Total from prop where ref = 'SB2004'";
$cnt = mysql_fetch_assoc(mysql_query($query_1));
$blocks=$cnt['Total']/4 + (0 == $cnt['Total'] % 4 ? 0 : 1);
$qry2="SELECT * FROM prop where ref='SB2004' ORDER BY primary_key";
$res=mysql_fetch_assoc($qry2);
for ($x=0; $x<$blocks; $x++) {
print "<div>\n$block<br />\n";
for ($y=0; $y<4; $y++) {
print implode(",", #mysql_fetch_assoc($res)). "\n";
}
print "</div>\n";
}
It's trivial to refine this further to only issue a single query to the database.
If you really must generate individual SELECTs....
include('connect.php');
$query_1 = "Select COUNT(*) as Total from prop where ref = 'SB2004'";
$cnt = mysql_fetch_assoc(mysql_query($query_1));
$blocks=$cnt['Total']/4 + (0 == $cnt['Total'] % 4 ? 0 : 1);
for ($x=0; $x<$blocks; $x++) {
$y=$x*4;
print "SELECT * FROM prop where ref='SB2004'
ORDER BY primary_key LIMIT $y,4<br />\n"
}
Hello I would like to query multiple identical tables in my db which has different prefixes and than display the results randomly but somehow I need to track the origin of the item and I couldn't figure out how
I do the query like this because I don't have access to information_schema
$query = "SHOW TABLES FROM mydb WHERE RIGHT( tables_in_mydb, 5 ) = 'table'";
$res = mysql_query($query);
$num = mysql_num_rows($res);
while($row = mysql_fetch_row($res)) {
$numbers = explode('_', $row[0]);
if($num > 0) {
$q = "SELECT `this`, `that`, `something` FROM ".$numbers[0]."_idetinticaltables"; // :)
$r = mysql_query($q);
while($c = mysql_fetch_array($r)) {
/*display the results randomly with an identifier where the come from*/
}
}
}
You could use ORDER BY RAND() to randomly sort it
The following might work:
Get the list of the tables you're interested in. You already do that.
Create a UNION of multiple SELECT statements. Each SELECT statement differs for the table being selected from and you add a column set to the name of the table (so you can identify it later):
(SELECT *, TABLENAME = 'first_name_of_table' FROM first_name_of_table ...)
UNION
(SELECT *, TABLENAME = 'second_name_of_table' FROM second_name_of_table ...)
UNION
...
ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 10;
Because it is a UNION you can randomize the whole order then. See How can i optimize MySQL's ORDER BY RAND() function? because it is not that trivial to do well, the example above is only to have an ORDER BY and LIMIT clause placed there. With many entries in your tables, it will kill your server.
$aa=array()
while($c = mysql_fetch_array($r))
{
/*display the results randomly with an identifier where the come from*/
$aa[]=$c;
}
echo $aa; // print "Array"
I have a problem selecting 6 random friends
This is the query I've got so far:
$result = num_rows("SELECT * FROM friends WHERE member_id = '".$_SESSION['userid']."'");
if($result >= 6) {
$f_num = 6;
} else {
$f_num = $result;
}
for($i = 1; $i <= $f_num; $i++) {
$q_get_member_friends = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM friends WHERE member_id = '".$_SESSION['userid']."' ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 1");
$r_get_member_friends = mysql_fetch_array($q_get_member_friends);
echo $r_get_member_friends['friend_with'];
}
I want to select 6 random friends if the logged in user has more or equal to 6 friends
Stuck on this for a while now :/
Thanks for any help :)
If you use:
SELECT *
FROM friends
WHERE member_id = '".$_SESSION['userid']."'
ORDER BY rand()
LIMIT 6
If the person only has 3 friends, the query will only show those three - it doesn't mean that the query will always return six rows.
The best way I've found to select any number of random records is with OFFSET in the query.
Let's say you want 6 random records, so I'll borrow from an answer above and count the total number of friends in the database.
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) AS total FROM friends WHERE member_id='". $_SESSION['userid'] ."'");
$get_count = mysql_fetch_array($sql); // Fetch the results
$numfriends = $get_count['total']; // We've gotten the total number
Now we'll get the 6 random records out of the total above (hopefully it's > 6),
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM friends WHERE member_id='". $_SESSION['userid'] ."' LIMIT 6 OFFSET " . (rand(0, $numFriends));
while ($rows = mysql_fetch_array($query))
{
/// show your $rows here
}
Using OFFSET may not be the best or most efficient, but it's worked for me on large databases without bogging them down.
Never mind, I figured it out :)
Had to use while not for :'D
First select the number of friends that the user has:
"SELECT COUNT(*) as numFriends FROM friends WHERE member_id='".$_SESSION['userid']."'
...put that into a variable, let's call it "$numFriends"
Then:
for($z=0;$z<6;$z++)
{
$randomFriendIndex = rand(1,$numFriends);
//Get the friend at that index
}
change limit 1 to limit 6 on the eighth line.
Instead of SELECT * at the beginning, try SELECT COUNT(*) and use the actual return value instead of num_rows().
Your loop could generate duplicates. I would suggest trying OMG Ponies answer.
There is a whole chapter about random selection in the book SQL Antipatterns.
I have a question probably lame but it made me stuck
I have the a db query
$query_Recordset10 = "SELECT * FROM products
WHERE razdel='mix' AND ID='$ID+1' AND litraj='$litri' ORDER BY ID ASC";
$Recordset10 = mysql_query($query_Recordset10, $victor) or die(mysql_error());
$row_Recordset10 = mysql_fetch_array($Recordset10);
$totalRows_Recordset10 = mysql_num_rows($Recordset10);
This is the query for the next product in the line based in the ID of the current product thats on the page.
But if the next product matching the criteria in the query is 2 or more ID's ahead my cycle breaks. So is there a way for skipping this rows and get the next ID matching the criteria.
Thank you very much.
SELECT * FROM products
WHERE razdel='mix' AND ID > $ID AND litraj='$litri' ORDER BY ID ASC";
PROBLEM SOLVED. I still have a lot to learn.
SELECT * FROM products WHERE razdel='mix' AND ID>'$ID' AND litraj='$litri' ORDER BY ID ASC LIMIT 1
this is the wright line but my mistake was how $ID is generated.
Thank you all.
Change your query to this:
$query_Recordset10 = "SELECT * FROM products
WHERE razdel='mix' AND ID > '$ID' AND litraj='$litri' ORDER BY ID ASC LIMIT 1";
So you still only get 1 row returned (if there's anything to return), but you'll be returning the next row (according to ORDER BY ID ASC) versus (potentially) the row with an incremental ID.
Use foreach to loop over an array rather than trying to access by indexes (if you're fetching every value):
foreach ($records as $record) {
}
instead of
for ($i = 0; $i < count($records); $i++) {
}
or
$i = 0;
while ($i < count($records)) {
$i++;
}
or
$i = 0;
do {
} while (++$i < count($records));
Use this query instead:
SELECT * FROM products WHERE razdel='mix' AND ID>$ID AND litraj='$litri' ORDER BY ID ASC LIMIT 1
This will give you the next element after the one with ID of $ID.
I want to show a random record from the database. I would like to be able to show X number of random records if I choose. Therefore I need to select the top X records from a randomly selected list of IDs
(There will never be more than 500 records involved to choose from, unless the earth dramatically increases in size. Currently there are 66 possibles.)
This function works, but how can I make it better?
/***************************************************/
/* RandomSite */
//****************/
// Returns an array of random site IDs or NULL
/***************************************************/
function RandomSite($intNumberofSites = 1) {
$arrOutput = NULL;
//open the database
GetDatabaseConnection('dev');
//inefficient
//$strSQL = "SELECT id FROM site_info WHERE major <> 0 ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT ".$intNumberofSites.";";
//Not wonderfully random
//$strSQL = "SELECT id FROM site_info WHERE major <> 0 AND id >= (SELECT FLOOR( COUNT(*) * RAND()) FROM site_info ) ORDER BY id LIMIT ".$intNumberofSites.";";
//Manual selection from available pool of candidates ?? Can I do this better ??
$strSQL = "SELECT id FROM site_info WHERE major <> 0;";
if (is_numeric($intNumberofSites))
{
//excute my query
$result = #mysql_query($strSQL);
$i=-1;
//create an array I can work with ?? Can I do this better ??
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM))
{
$arrResult[$i++] = $row[0];
}
//mix them up
shuffle($arrResult);
//take the first X number of results ?? Can I do this better ??
for ($i=0;$i<$intNumberofSites;$i++)
{
$arrOutput[$i] = $arrResult[$i];
}
}
return $arrOutput;
}
UPDATE QUESTION:
I know about the ORDER BY RAND(), I just don't want to use it because there are rumors it isn't the best at scaling and performance. I am being overly critical of my code. What I have works, ORDER BY RAND() works, but can I make it better?
MORE UPDATE
There are holes in the IDs. There is not a ton of churn, but any churn that happens needs to be approved by our team, and therefore could handled to dump any caching.
Thanks for the replies!
Why not use the Rand Function in an orderby in your database query? Then you don't have to get into randomizing etc in code...
Something like (I don't know if this is legal)
Select *
from site_info
Order by Rand()
LIMIT N
where N is the number of records you want...
EDIT
Have you profiled your code vs. the query solution? I think you're just pre-optimizing here.
If you dont want to select with order by rand().
Instead of shuffeling, use array_rand on the result:
$randKeys = array_rand($arrResult, $intNumberofSites);
$arrOutput = array_intersect_key(array_flip($randKeys), $arrResult);
edit: return array of keys not new array with key => value
Well, I don't think that ORDER BY RAND() would be that slow in a table with only 66 rows, but you can look into a few different solutions anyway.
Is the data really sparse and/or updated often (so there are big gaps in the ids)?
Assuming it's not very sparse, you could select the max id from the table, use PHP's built-in random function to pick N distinct numbers between 1 and the max id, and then attempt to fetch the rows with those ids from the table. If you get back less rows than you picked numbers, get more random numbers and try again, until you have the number of rows needed. This may not be particularly fast either.
If the data is sparse, I would set up a secondary "id-type" column that you make sure is sequential. So if there are 66 rows in the table, ensure that the new column contains the values 1-66. Whenever rows are added to or removed from the table, you will have to do some work to adjust the values in this column. Then use the same technique as above, picking random IDs in PHP, but you don't have to worry about the "missing ID? retry" case.
Here are the three functions I wrote and tested
My answer
/***************************************************/
/* RandomSite1 */
//****************/
// Returns an array of random rec site IDs or NULL
/***************************************************/
function RandomSite1($intNumberofSites = 1) {
$arrOutput = NULL;
GetDatabaseConnection('dev');
$strSQL = "SELECT id FROM site_info WHERE major <> 0;";
if (is_numeric($intNumberofSites))
{
$result = #mysql_query($strSQL);
$i=-1;
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM)) {
$arrResult[$i++] = $row[0]; }
//mix them up
shuffle($arrResult);
for ($i=0;$i<$intNumberofSites;$i++) {
$arrOutput[$i] = $arrResult[$i]; }
}
return $arrOutput;
}
JPunyon and many others
/***************************************************/
/* RandomSite2 */
//****************/
// Returns an array of random rec site IDs or NULL
/***************************************************/
function RandomSite2($intNumberofSites = 1) {
$arrOutput = NULL;
GetDatabaseConnection('dev');
$strSQL = "SELECT id FROM site_info WHERE major<>0 ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT ".$intNumberofSites.";";
if (is_numeric($intNumberofSites))
{
$result = #mysql_query($strSQL);
$i=0;
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM)) {
$arrOutput[$i++] = $row[0]; }
}
return $arrOutput;
}
OIS with a creative solution meeting the intend of my question.
/***************************************************/
/* RandomSite3 */
//****************/
// Returns an array of random rec site IDs or NULL
/***************************************************/
function RandomSite3($intNumberofSites = 1) {
$arrOutput = NULL;
GetDatabaseConnection('dev');
$strSQL = "SELECT id FROM site_info WHERE major<>0;";
if (is_numeric($intNumberofSites))
{
$result = #mysql_query($strSQL);
$i=-1;
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM)) {
$arrResult[$i++] = $row[0]; }
$randKeys = array_rand($arrResult, $intNumberofSites);
$arrOutput = array_intersect_key($randKeys, $arrResult);
}
return $arrOutput;
}
I did a simple loop of 10,000 iterations where I pulled 2 random sites. I closed and opened a new browser for each function, and cleared the cached between run. I ran the test 3 times to get a simple average.
NOTE - The third solution failed at pulling less than 2 sites as the array_rand function has different output if it returns a set or single result. I got lazy and didn't fully implement the conditional to handle that case.
1 averaged: 12.38003755 seconds
2 averaged: 12.47702177 seconds
3 averaged: 12.7124153 seconds
mysql_query("SELECT id FROM site_info WHERE major <> 0 ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT $intNumberofSites")
EDIT
Damn, JPunyon was a bit quicker :)
Try this:
SELECT
#nv := #min + (RAND() * (#max - #min)) / #lc,
(
SELECT
id
FROM site_info
FORCE INDEX (primary)
WHERE id > #nv
ORDER BY
id
LIMIT 1
),
#max,
#min := #nv,
#lc := #lc - 1
FROM
(
SELECT #min := MIN(id)
FROM site_info
) rmin,
(
SELECT #max := MAX(id)
FROM site_info
) rmax,
(
SELECT #lc := 5
) l,
site_info
LIMIT 5
This will select a random ID on each iteration using index, in descending order.
There is slight chance, though, that you get less results that you wanted, as it gives no second chance to the missed id's.
The more percent of rows you select, the bigger is the chance.
I would simply use the rand() function (I assume you are using MySQL)...
SELECT id, rand() as rand_idx FROM site_info WHERE major <> 0 ORDER BY rand_idx LIMIT x;
I'm with JPunyon. Use ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT $N. I think you'll get a bigger performance hit from $arrResult having and shuffling so many (unused) entries than from using the MySQL RAND() function.
function getSites ( $numSites = 5 ) {
// Sanitize $numSites if necessary
$result = mysql_query("SELECT id FROM site_info WHERE major <> 0 "
."ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT $numSites");
$arrResult = array();
while ( $row = mysql_fetch_array($result,MYSQL_NUM) ) {
$arrResult[] = $row;
}
return $arrResult;
}